Behind The Veil
by moNkeY-of-Silence
Summary: They had traced Baal all they way back to the Worldstone Chamber, they entered and had a final showdown. Somehow Baal had faked his own death and
1. Prologue

Prologue:

As we continued down towards the Throne of Destruction, I had noticed that Norah, the sorceress, had actually fallen behind. This was odd I thought to myself, she was usually very headstrong and lead us into battle. Beside me was Morone, the barbarian, he suddenly stopped and casted battle orders, shout, and battle command. I immediately felt myself stronger with more mana within myself. Bringing up the rear was Kana, the necromancer; he had been my best friend for countless years. He had been there with me when we took down Diablo; he had been there to help me up after a particularly nasty wound from Diablo's electric fire. To Norah's side was Meghan, she was the assassin of our group; she had joined us after we had entered the Pandemonium Fortress. To my right was Kyana, the amazon, she had been with Kana and me for about five years now. All of them thought that Meghan and I had very weird names; our names were very uncommonly used in our world.

"Hey Scott is that the entrance I see or is that just some other stupid black soul," Norah asked me.

"Good question."

I teleported there (I was wearing an enigma at the time) and checked, it was the entrance all right. After a day of wandering around in this labyrinth we had finally found the entrance to Baal.

"Yeah, it's the entrance all right, come on over," I shouted to them.

As we entered the Throne, five death lords had some as our welcoming parties. Morone had slashed one down with one mighty slash of his axe while Kyana's valkyrie slaughtered one more. Norah had taken down two more, while Kana was back behind us casting amplify damage. That left me, I unsheathed my sword and casted holy shield, then I put on fanaticism as my aura. I charged the lord and hit him square in the chest with my sword. We had taken care of the first few monsters of the many we would meet on our way to Baal's minions.

"Good job guys," Morone told us after he had put his axe away.

"We each had very powerful weapons that we had bought with the items we had collected over our journeys to defeat the prime evils. I was currently using the Azurewrath, a very powerful sword with low strength requirements. Morone had purchased an Ebotd berserker axe, just about the best weapon a barbarian could have. Norah had a Death's Fathom, the best weapon for a cold sorceress. Kana was using a Heart of the Oak flail, the best weapon for any caster except sorceresses. That left Kyana with an ethereal Titans Revenge Matriarchal Javelin. Meghan was using a Chaos Suwayyah, the best weapon for a melee assassin. Her weapon let her cast whirlwind, a skill supposedly only barbarians had. We each pretty much had the best weapon for each type of person we were.

As we walked cautiously towards the throne, a couple of doom knights came rushing at us, swords held high above their heads. Morone immediately leapt into the air and slashed one down with his axe while landing. Norah cast a blizzard and down went three more, Kana summoned four skeletons from the corpses to fight for him. Jean cast whirlwind and immediately spun into a raging tornado of fury, she had slashed five more before she came out of it. The doom knights were gone without me doing anything, as we walked into the center of the room, we heard Baal laughing like a maniac. He first summoned Colenzo. Colenzo and his minions were slaughtered almost instantly by Kana skeleton warriors combined with amplify damage. He summoned more skeletons from the corpses of Colenzo and his minions. Now he had a small army of about fifteen skeletons.

"Nice job Kana, the little beasts were massacred."

"Thanks Morone, that's why being a fully fledged necromancer for five years, is good for me and you guys."

"Ok guys don't get cocky we still have much more to do and much more to kill," I said to Kana.

Morone casted battle orders, shout, and battle command again; we all immediately felt our strength and mana multiplied. Soon after, Achmel had been summoned. I started casting blessed hammer and Norah casted blizzard; together we pawned them before they could get more than five shots out. I turned around and saw Meghan cheering us on and I flashed her a grin, suddenly I noticed that Kyana was coughing. She had turned a dangerous shade of green. I knew what had happened....

"MORONE CAST A TOWN PORTAL NOW," I screamed as he fumbled in his pack looking for his tome of town portals.

I grabbed Kyana by the waist and hoisted her onto my shoulders; I looked around and saw that Meghan had jealousy in her eyes. I pretended that I hadn't seen the look on her face, but something disturbed me about it.

"Don't worry guys, we'll be right back, I'll just take her to Malah and we'll be back in a flash, and don't die please. Thanks guys you're the best."

I walked through the portal with Kyana on my shoulders; I took her to Malah and asked her to heal her.

"Can you help her?"

"Of course I can just hold on I'll be right back."

She came back later with a little black bottle with a picture of a skull on it and she fed the contents to Kyana, she immediately returned to her normal color and she got onto her feet.

"Thank you Malah."

"No problem my dear Kyana, now if you're done I have some other patients I need to tend to."

"Thank you Scott for taking me back here."

"Don't thank me; you've saved my ass countless times."

We took the portal back and we saw that they were currently fighting Ventar, unsheathing my sword; I quickly leapt into the fight with the monstrous beasts. One came charging at me and swung his mighty sword at my face, I ducked down and slashed at his feet. He took a step back and roared in agony, he took a deep breath and fired an inferno at me. I raised my shield and the flame glanced off it. I stood back up and swung my sword with all my might right at his neck, his head came cleanly off and rolled to Meghan's feet.

"Nice job Scott, just a couple more eh?"

"Thanks, no time to talk."

She gave me a hurt look and turned back to the beast who was advancing at her. She cast whirlwind a couple of times and he feel down to his knees, dead. I returned to the remaining monster, he looked worried for there were five of us circling him and then there were Kana's skeletons. Morone, the skeletons, and I jumped at him and we slashed his feet and arms. He was immediately crippled, without his arms and legs, Norah and Meghan finished her off, Norah cast a blizzard and Meghan laid a few lightning sentry traps.

"Whew, that was a tough one wasn't it?"

"We'll be okay Norah," I replied with a grave look on my face.

"Hey Scott are you okay? Is that cut on your arm hurting you," Meghan asked me with deep concern.

"That's ok honeybuns; I'll live through this crusade."

"Well I guess we should get going," said Kana breaking the silence.

"Wait just one second," Morone answered.

He casted his warcries one more time then we left for Baal whom was waiting for us inside the Worldstone Chamber. Kyana and Morone took the lead, Norah and Kana were in the middle, and Meghan and I brought up the rear.

"Don't worry Meghan, we'll be okay, Baal's going to be real sorry that he had caused so much damage in our world," I whispered in her ear trying to calm her.

"Just try to stay alive tough guy," she whispered back.

As we walked inside, we knew there was no turning back, the only way out was to defeat Baal or we wouldn't have come this far to fail. I vowed I would take him down no matter what the price. Norah teleported next to Baal and casted static field a few times and brought his life down to a quarter. This would make out job a whole lot easier. Baal casted his mana burn inferno and immediately our mana was drained, we each took a few mana potions and we were all better and ready to roll. Morone leapt and slashed back and forth. Morone had slashed a couple of Baal's tentacles and Baal reared up in pain. I charged Baal and hit him right in his leg, I knew I had crippled that leg but he had many more. Meghan whirlwinded and hit him a few times. I knew we had all gotten lucky these few times, for if Baal was this easy he would have been dead much sooner. Baal had struck Kana square in his chest and he was on the ground lying in a pool of blood.

"Kana, hold on friend, here drink this."

I handed him a few of my health potions and he immediately recovered from his wounded state and back into fighting position. Although he had no more skeletons, he stood there and cast all his curses he could. I slashed at his torso; my blade glanced off without doing any damage. I wasn't surprised I knew Baal was tough; we had just gotten lucky before. We slashed, cut, chopped, and hit him with spells, but nothing did the trick. I noticed Meghan was just standing there; she seemed to be contemplating something. Right when I had slashed at Baal's face, he reared up for a second and revealed his neck, suddenly Meghan jumped up and stabbed her blade right into his neck, it seemed to nothing but a surface wound, but she didn't let go, she hung there pushing the blade deeper. We all watched in awe as she sacrificed herself to kill Baal, suddenly one of Baal's tentacles whipped around and headed for her face, she quickly summoned her shadow master to block the blow. She pushed in deeper and deeper; suddenly Baal gave one last roar of desperation and fell in defeat. We all congratulated Meghan for her awesome effort.

"Incredible job Meghan, no wonder you're an assassin," I congratulated her.

"Thanks guys, it was nothing I didn't want all of our efforts to be in vain after all that we've been through to be a failure. But I really must thank Scott for the encouragement and help throughout the way."

Upon hearing this I immediately blushed, I congratulated her one more time and then turned back to Baal's corpse. Suddenly the truth hit me; I noticed that Baal's corpse wasn't there, just a pile of blue ash. Realization hit me like a blow from an Urdar. We didn't kill the real Baal. Baal had cast Vile Effigy, he created an exact duplicate of himself to reside here and the real Baal had fled off to another place.

After I broke the news to the group, they couldn't believe it.

"How can you be sure Scott," Morone asked me.

"There's no corpse of him, nothing but a vile pile of ashes."

"Well there goes all my effort," Meghan said, shaking her head.

Kyana flashed her a look of loathing and hung her head. They had never gotten along very well, Kyana was jealous of Meghan since that she and I were lovers while secretly she liked me too. Everyone knew that and she didn't try to hide it. Meghan was unbelievably gorgeous and she was just beautiful. She didn't have such perfect features; she had certain imperfections here and there.

I had noticed that Norah hadn't said much after we had defeated "Baal". She worried me, she had changed ever since we had reached Harrogath, she wasn't her usually cheerful self. Now she was always alone and brooding in her room.

The next day we packed up our belongings and got ready to leave on our hunt for Baal. Meghan joined me in my room after she was done packing and we started chatting about different things.

"I think Kyana is jealous of us," she said with concern.

"Who wouldn't be jealous of you?"

"I'm serious Scott, I don't want to cause distrust and dismay among the group, it could lead us to our ends."

"Don't worry, she'll be ok."

With that I grabbed her by the waist and planted a French kiss on her lips. A few hours later, we were ready to leave. We all said our farewells to our friends in Harrogath. We all gathered at the gates and off we went.

Chapter 1:

We arrived in Kurast a few days later. Ormus greeted us with a warm banquet and a very festive party. He admitted that he was surprised to see us so soon. We had explained what had happened. Ormus was shocked to know they were fooled by Baal. Later we each chose a room and stayed there. We decided to leave in the morning and start searching in the Durance of Hate to see if he had taken up his brother's old place.

During the night I was thinking to myself about all of our problems, we had the huge task of locating Baal in a huge world, there was the problem with Kyana being jealous, and then there was Norah. Norah was what concerned me the most, she had changed dramatically, she used to always have an upbeat personality, now it was like she was locked into her head.

"Hey guys, it's time to get up now, we should be up and searching for him now."

"Christ Morone do you always have to wake me up at the crack of dawn?"

"Well loverboy, your girlfriend's up already, I thought you might want to see her before we leave on our noble expedition."

"Ok get out of my room and let me put on some clothes besides my boxers. Christ man."

I got up and looked in the mirror. I noticed my hair was all rumpled up just the way that Meghan liked it so I decided not to touch it. I put on my tunic and then strapped on my armor and grabbed my sword. When I walked out I saw it was only beginning to get light but our side of the town was already buzzing with activity. I saw Meghan was stuffing supplies into her pack. I walked up to her and I saw she had her hair in a bun, just the way I liked it. I didn't say anything to her just started to pack my pack. I noticed that her eyes were a little off, like she didn't sleep at all. After a nice hearty breakfast we set off into the Durance of Hate. We took the waypoint and we started in level too.

The second we stepped out of our room, a few Urdars came at us, Kyana's valkyrie immediately stopped two dead in their tracks while Meghan slaughtered the rest. Morone stopped and casted his warcries and our strength multiplied with the same feeling. As we walked, we turned into a room that was, to our horror, was filled with stygian dolls, Kana immediately fired a couple of bone spears into the group of dolls, they immediately exploded a few yards away from us. A couple of the thorns glanced off my armor and bounced off the walls.

"Whoa that was a close one," I said to the group.

"True, thanks Kana, those thorns would have hurt," said Norah.

"Wow Norah, you're back on speaking terms eh?"

"Shut up."

We took a few more turns and found the entrance to the Durance of Hate Level three. We stepped in and a few blood lords came at us and fired off a few fireballs. Meghan teleported there with her enigma and immediately slashed them to death. Kyana rushed up to the few council members and slaughtered them in attempt to redeem herself in my eyes. Kana, Morone, and Norah stood back and watched with amusement, these two girls were trying to win, they knew who I loved, since they had been with me long enough. Kyana just wouldn't give up though; she would keep on trying until she won me. When we reached the portal to the Pandemonium Fortress, we had our worst nightmare in front of us, behind us, we had about fifty blood lords and thirty stygian dolls had formed a semi-circle behind us. We were cornered with our worst nightmare in front of us, we had no idea what to do.......


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Fear. Fear is a word that many people have felt sometime throughout their lives. It's the only word that can describe a situation in many cases. I had felt fear many times, never to such a degree or never so much at one time.

Suddenly Morone sounded a deep laugh, fury and anger in his eyes as he leapt towards the minions. Baal sounded the dreaded sound of charging. I bellowed in a great fury as my sword danced from side to side, slashing and parrying. Glancing at Meghan, I saw that she had slaughtered ten or so of Baal's minions. I stole a quick smile at her and I returned back towards the blood lord who was firing fireballs at me. I sheathed my sword and popped out my Heart of the Oak flail, it had amazing stats on the item. It had 3 to all skills, 10 to dexterity, 40 to all resistances, and some other stuff. I switched my spells to combat skills and I casted blessed hammer at the lord. The first hammer killed the lord, my hammers did 17k damage while my zeal did 8k damage.

Norah suddenly jumped at Baal and jabbed her staff into Baal's right chest, suddenly Baal teleported and she was thrown fifty feet into the air. Morone tried to catch her in his arms, but a couple of the council members stepped in his way.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" He turned back to the council members, bloodlust and a cold ferociousness in his eyes as he massacred them.

I turned back and concentrated my hammers towards Baal; I hit him with a couple before his festering appendages spun around and knocked me onto my butt. Fear gripped my heart as I saw Baal extended his tentacles as he reached towards me. Suddenly Meghan teleported over next to me and parried the blow with her blades.

"Thanks Meghan." I said graciously.

"Any day sucker." She replied with a mischievous grin.

I saw Baal summon a festering appendage and I grabbed Meghan by her arm and tossed her down. I took a quick glance around and spotted Kyana and Kana.

"Hey! Kyana, summon a valkyrie here for me will ya? Kana summon me a fire golem."

My plan was to let the valkyrie and golem take the damage while I stood back hitting Baal with my hammers. I hit Baal over and over countless times. I saw the rest of them watching me with pure awe as my hammers weakened Baal over and over again. Suddenly Baal screamed and died, he shrunk into a pile of blue ashes.

"GODDAMIT!!!!!"

"Another Effigy, interesting, what is he trying to hide?" Kyana thought out loud.

I turned back to Morone; I saw he had completely mutilated the bodies of the council members. He turned back to face us and looked at us with the gravest of faces. He cast a town portal and walked back into the Pandemonium fortress. We all followed him through and arrived to the Fortress.

"Well looks like he evaded us once more." Kyana left and headed to Jamella.

"We'll get him, just a matter of when and at what price," Kyana said grieving over Norah.

"Oh we'll get him, once we do......" Morone whispered gravely.

"Well at least I got some runes from him."

They all looked at me like I was crazy; I turned around and headed for another barbarian I had spotted earlier. I negotiated a deal with him on a Doom berserker axe. It was a good one with 377 enhanced damage. I had traded him my Azurewrath and a jah and ber for the Doom. I walked back towards the group with my new weapon.

"Well I'm going back East to enhance my knowledge of Rathma. I'm trying to master poison and bone skills. Sorry guys, I'll be back in a flash."

"Well good-bye Kana," I said sorrily.

He left and took a waypoint back to the Kurast area. I walked over to Meghan and noticed that she wasn't being very talkative like she usually was.

"What's wrong Meghan?"

"It's just that we've killed two of Baal's effigys and it makes me wonder if we'll ever find him. I mean now Norah's dead, is it really worth it?"

"Of course it's worth it, if we didn't finish this quest wouldn't Norah's death be wasted? I'm willing to destroy Baal at no matter what the price it, if it's my life then so be it. If we do not destroy Baal now, he will have the chance to turn this world to an outpost of Hell once again."

"Even if the price is our relationship?"

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning what if one of us dies or he corrupts one of us and we totally change?"

"Well that's why people do things."

With that I left her confused and dazed. That night we had a great feast prepared by Tyrael. We ate and drank until our stomachs would accept no more. Within all of the festive cheer, only Morone remained sulking. Then there was Meghan whom was still not talking much. Suddenly a strong arm pulled me away from the table and thoughts evaporated into air. I turned around and saw Tyrael looking at me, I could feel his eyes piercing my soul and seeing right through me.

"You worry about her." He said to me.

"She's not herself lately, she's wondering if it's worth it."

"Are you having second thoughts?"

".......... No. I'm willing to pay any price to find Baal."

"You sound very confident."

"I am very confident."

"What if the price is Meghan and all your memories of her?"

The question had taken me off guard. I looked at him like he was joking but his eyes stared back at me, dead serious.

"You-you-you're joking right?"

"No joke."

"What do you mean?"

"I could take you to Baal right now, but the cost is the one that the strongest of the group's greatest love. Could you handle that?"

"Give me some time."

"You have till sunrise."

Through the eyes of Meghan

I watched him get pulled towards the side by Tyrael. _Shit, this can't be good_. Walking towards my room I pondered what they could be talking about. No doubt about Baal or some other stupid thing. I sat on my bed and looked at my Chaos Suwayyah, such a beautiful weapon. The sound of a rushing death packed into a metal blade on a wooden frame. I observed every edge of the blade and all the magical etchings on the blade. It had been a gift from Scott during the second year I had been with him. I poked my head outside and looked at the sun; it was late in the night already. Getting undressed, I slipped into bed. It took a while for me to fall asleep.

Late in the night I woke up and noticed Scott was right next to me and was staring at me with his eyes. He slipped his head under the covers and came out a few seconds later. We just laid there saying and doing nothing. After a while I had almost fallen asleep again, he sat up and got ready to leave. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back into bed. He fell on his back and landed near me on the bed.

I put my hands into his boxers and felt around. After I while I traced the outline of his boxers and I ripped them down.

"What bloody hell???!!!!"

I got on top of him as he crept inside me. An eruption of passion and lust had exploded around us, I felt a small electric charge within myself, tickling at my insides and making me jump. It was certainly a pleasant feeling, a feeling that I hadn't felt for a long time. He went in and out countless times, I felt an eruption inside of me and he stopped for a while, a few seconds later it started again. An electric charge ran from my leg, along my back, and all the way to my head. I moved down lower and grabbed it and licked it over and over and over again. He couldn't move as he was grabbed my something incredibly strong. Another eruption occurred and it was certainly a good feeling.

Through the eyes of Scott

The next morning we got dressed and there were smirks all over the Pandemonium Fortress.

"What's so funny?" I asked Kyana.

"Oh it's nothing, really." She exploded with laughter and tears streamed down her face.

"Very funny." I replied with a frown.

I wondered if last night was what everyone was laughing at. I noticed Morone and I walked up to him.

"What are you guys laughing about?"

"You."

"And Meghan." He told me with a chuckle.

"What about Meghan and me?"

"How's last night?"

"Christ, how did you guys find out?"

"Tyrael knows all and sees all, he told us."

Fury coursed through my blood as I sprinted towards Tyrael, he was walking through a portal back into Heaven and I wanted to catch him. I got there just a second late; he turned around and smirked at me. I stood there, raging at myself for being too slow. When suddenly Meghan appeared at my side and put an arm on me. She smiled and started packing up her stuff.

"Don't worry it'll die down soon, it never lasts long. You better back up, we're getting ready to set for the chaos sanctuary and they're expecting you to teleport there like usual."

"Well looks like I need to pack up. See you later."

It felt odd talking to her after last night. I gathered up my belongings and stuffed them into my pack. I strapped on my enigma and picked up my Hoto (Heart of the Oak) and got ready to teleport there. I trudged over to the waypoint and I saw that they were already assembled there waiting for my town portal. I shot a smile towards Meghan and I got ready to leave. I chose my destination, the River of Flame; I looked around at the familiar settings and sighed. I teleported all the way into the chaos sanctuary and walked right into the star. I fumbled around in my pack and found my tome of town portal and casted one. The other three guys came out through the portal as I waited on the side.

We walked towards Ventar's side and we were soon greeted by a party of doom knights. Morone immediately casted his warcries and I felt myself stronger, physically and spiritually. I started casting hammers once they were within fifteen feet of us; I knocked down a couple of them before they had advanced to me. I parried a few blows with my shield, but soon I was overwhelmed. Meghan immediately casted some traps and killed the remaining couple of them. I was slipping into unconsciousness when I saw she walked towards me. She put her mouth on mine and performed CPR. I immediately bolted straight up and picked up my shield and got ready for battle.

I put on conviction and Meghan trapped the rest of the minions in the sanctuary.

"Well that was easy," Morone and Kyana said in unison.

Meghan turned around and shot them a quick glare. Suddenly we felt the earth rumble and shake. At first I thought it was an earthquake, unaware of the true reason I got down on the ground. A deep roar pierced the air, I looked up and my jaw dropped. Uber Diablo, the most feared creature in our entire world. Kyana, Meghan, and Morone looked stunned, only the legendary Wanderer had seen this creature before.

I leapt towards him and unsheathed my sword and slashed his hide. To my surprise it had almost no effect. Behind me Meghan had laid a number of lightning sentries. They seared Uber's flesh next to me, as I zealed him, Kyana and Morone charged towards him, weapons drawn. Uber immediately casted an Armageddon, Kyana weaved in and out the falling meteorites when Morone was hit square on the chest with one. Kyana leapt backwards and casted a town portal. She grabbed him and took him through the portal.

A ring of fire exploded from Uber as I leapt towards the side into a gap between two fires. Meghan teleported next to me and whirlwinded Uber, he reared back in pain and spun around to see where she had stopped. He immediately focused his energies and fired an electric fire that hit her on her legs. I stopped slashing him and sent a few holy bolts towards her; she immediately healed and got back onto her feet.

Kyana and Morone had come back through town portal. Kyana's valkyrie and Meghan's shadow master worked together and sliced Uber's forearm. Morone berserked Uber from the side and sliced his knee. He bellowed in pain and threw his head back; I leapt onto his head and attempted to stab his head. To my dismay, my sword just glanced off, and then I remembered that I was only using a Frostwind and was no where near as powerful as Azurewrath. After a while, standing on his head with him trying to thrash me off, I remembered the Doom I had bought. I took it out and swung with all my might, the mighty beast beneath me crippled down and screamed in pain. We all watched from a distance as the creature died.

I walked over to the corpse and picked up the Annihilus charm. I gave it to Meghan and she thanked me with a grim nod of her head. The others had no objections considering I had killed him. They all stared at me like I was crazy to do something like that.

"Well someone has to kill him right? If no one else will do it, I might as well do it."

I casted a town portal and headed back to the Pandemonium Fortress, to my great and pleasant surprise, Kana was standing there waiting for me. He smiled at me and embraced me within his arms like a brother.

"Seems like you guys did pretty well with Uber without me eh?"

"How do you know?"

"Tyrael knows and sees all, and how was it with Meghan?"

"Christ, he even told you that?"

"Of course."

We walked off towards my room; he started a conversation about Meghan to my embarrassment.

"Well how was it?"

"Why do you want to know that?"

"Let's see, because we've been friends the longest, I'm older than you, and I've saved your ass countless times. How's that?"

"Fine whatever."

"Tell me, I want to know all the details."

"It was sort of awkward one might say. Certainly pleasant though, a feeling I haven't had for a while."

"Funny, real funny."

"Huh?"

"Oh it's no matter."

I left the room and headed my way outside into the brisk sun. I met up with the rest of the guys who were in a group. I decided to just listen and shut up. They were trying to decide where to go next, Kyana had suggested that we go to Andariel's room and Morone argued that we should check out Duriel first. I noticed that Kana and Meghan kept quiet in this conversation. In the end, Kyana turned out as the victor and we decided that we would head towards Andariel.

We picked up our stuff and headed towards the waypoint. I said a couple of quick farewells with Jamella and Halbu. I cantered over back towards the waypoint and I chose the Rogue Encampment as my destination.

Upon arriving in the Rogue Encampment I walked towards Akara, she turned around and smiled at me.

"It's good to see you again Akara, it's been a while hasn't it?"

"Yes it has, it does me good to see you again. What brings you back to our humble little encampment? I thought you were on your great journey to find Baal."

"Yes we are, it has lead us right to the encampment, he's escaped our grasp several times now. We're looking for him all over the place, we had agreed upon looking in the catacombs if you have no objections."

Her expression immediately changed, apprehensive, worried even.

"Of course, of course, go where you wish."

"Thank you, I'll be off to find a room now, thank you again."

I trudged over to the room where I had last slept when I was staying within these very walls. As I entered the room, I noticed it hadn't changed much since my last visit. I sat myself down onto familiar cushion on the seat. I spent a couple minutes looking at my surroundings. I was interrupted by Kashya stepping into my room; she stopped at the table and looked at me. She gave a small sigh and took a few more steps towards me.

"Look at you now, a hero with so many people. I still remember the day you stepped into the encampment; you were just a fresh explorer right out of the Church of Zakarum."

"Well that was a long time ago. I was young then."

"You still are....."

"Still older than I was, I was intemperate in my youth."

"Either way, I have a job for you; I'll pay you ten high runes upon completion."

I bolted upright, TEN high runes for one job, must be one hell of a job.

"The job is what?"

"We've had something killing all our soldiers up around the Tamoe Highland. I want you to locate the monster and slay it."

"Sounds easy enough."

"I'm not too sure, I've sent twenty of our rogues and only two came back alive. From their descriptions the monster looks greenish. Not any of the known unique monsters around here. Must be something new Baal has created."

"Heh, new creature eh? Now I'm not too sure."

"Didn't think you would be."

"I'll take it though, ten runes, Christ, you must be real desperate eh?"

I followed her out of my room and I located the others. I told them about the job and they were stunned, we had agreed that we would split the ten runes evenly.

"So Andariel's place first or this monster first," I asked them.

"I say monster first," Meghan replied with a frown.

The others agreed anonymously that we destroy this monster first. It was agreed that we would set out next morning at the crack of dawn. We all headed back towards our own rooms and said nothing more to one another.

I got washed up and slipped into bed. Sometime around midnight I heard some disturbances outside. Strapping on a few pieces of armor and grabbing my sword and shield I walked outside. I saw a couple of fallen inside around the fire. I charged towards them and slaughtered one immediately with one strike of my sword. The other ran off like I knew it would. I walked over to the little red creature and bent down, its eyes showed fear of death. I grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and took it outside. It looked at me surprisingly; I waved a hand towards the Blood Moor. I returned to my bed and I found Meghan in it. I slipped in on the side of her.

"Why were you outside?"

"A couple of fallen had gotten inside the encampment, took care of them."

"Ah of course, always the hero eh?"

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning nothing, you should watch out for yourself more. Someday you'll get yourself hurt by these nighttime excursions."

"If I didn't know better, I think you're jealous."

"Of what?"

"Akara of course, you're aware of her feelings."

"Her? She's not competition."

I laughed a bit and I settled down and looked at her deep brown eyes and black hair. _God she was so beautiful, her exotic eyes and flowing hair, her lithe body, every curve, every part, everything was perfected._

"What are you thinking about," she asked me with a childish grin.

"About how beautiful and wonderful you are."

"Liar," she pouted.

"Am not, I never lie."

"Hahahahaha good one."

"Well maybe not, but I'd never lie to you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure."

She grabbed me and put a french hard on me. Once again that highly charged atmosphere surrounded us again. I pulled down her panties and I looked down under the sheets and I felt her spasm a few times. I came back up a few seconds later and saw her gorgeous brown eyes staring at me with an incredible degree of love. I slowly entered her, after a few seconds we picked up the pace. Suddenly I felt her pause for a few seconds as I exploded inside. I could hear her moan as she went faster and faster. I exploded again and she moaned over and over again. At last she exploded and opened her eyes, they were different now. Instead of the beautiful brown eyes, they were full with lust and fervor. She went faster and faster and faster, she had finally stopped what felt like two or three hours later. She pulled on her clothes and headed back to her room. I thought about what we had done this night, I wondered if it was the right thing. I put it off for later pondering.

The next morning we set off and took the waypoint to the Black Marsh. I looked around and popped out my compass. Behind me was Kyana and Morone who were looking over my shoulder, Meghan and Kana were talking in the rear. After a few minutes of jogging, we ran into a camp of black ones. Kyana fired a lightning fury and forty of them fell immediately. Meghan's traps did the rest; Morone leapt ahead and called us over. What I saw rocked my whole mind. Seven paladins lay dead; all were a hypoxic green, their flesh turned into jelly, and an orange fluid running from their noses caked grotesquely over their chins. I took off my Crown of Ages and bent down onto one knee. I quickly said a prayer and picked up the pace towards the Highlands. We came across a small opening along the walls, I walked through it first and I knew we had reached the Highlands.

"Take out your weapons and keep an open eye."

"What are we looking for again?"

"A green monster, something new, I'm guessing another form of Hephasto would be what this creature would resemble."

"Gotcha."

After a few minutes of hiking along the trail, I spotted something, a green arm and a hammer crashing down.

"Over there," I yelled.

I ran over towards where I had last seen the arm and I stopped dead in my tracks, my blood ran stone cold. I was gazing at a twenty foot tall green beast. Its expression clearly said _I shall kill you_. It charged at me and I immediately noticed its attributes, I was stunned, it was enchanted with all the most powerful enchantments. It had extra strong, extra fast, spectral hit, cold enchanted, lightning immune, cursed, magic resistant, cold immune, aura enchanted, and mana burn. I quickly summoned a few hammers; surprisingly it only did a little damage. Morone casted his warcries and I felt much more tenacious. Behind me Meghan executed a flawless dragon flight and hit the beast square on the head. Her face flashed fear for a second, no more, then she whirlwinded through the beast and came out the other side. Kana went up to it and casted a poison nova, as the creature's life was drained, Morone and Kyana charged and sliced off one arm. I just realized I had been stationary for more than a minute, just as I was going to roll to one side, the creature's hammer came crashing down onto my chest. I felt the wind get knocked out of me; I crept back onto my feet and saw the others were doing a great job of keeping the creature off me. I teleported next to it and unsheathed my Doom, I slashed its leg off, as it fell towards the ground, another clean sweep, the head came rolling off.

"Well looks like the job is done. How are you Scott," Meghan inquired with concern written all over her face.

"I'm alright, good job you guys."

"Well we're all in this right?"

"Yes, we're all together in this fight."

"Good job Morone, Kyana, excellent job."

"Thank you," they said in unison.

"Well let's get this thing packed up and bring it back to Kashya."

"I can carry it," Morone said.

"Okay Morone, Kana can u get a skeleton to raise it onto his back?"

"Of course."

He went to the side and slaughtered a couple of fallen and summoned two skeletons from the corpses. They carried the body and the head of the beast and set it upon Morone's shoulders. They immediately crumbled from the effort of lifting the heavy body.

I casted a town portal and Morone walked through it. He dumped the body and head at Kashya's feet. She looked up at us with increased respect in her eyes.

"Thank you, that was faster than I thought it would be but that's only better isn't it guys?"

"Yes I guess so," Kana replied.

She handed us our runes and she walked towards Akara. We split the runes like we agreed we would.

The next morning we restocked on everything as we got ready to leave for Andariel's chambers in the catacombs of the monastery. Like usual, I trudged over towards the waypoint and I selected catacombs level 2. I teleported all the way to level four, evading all monsters in the way. I sent a town portal back to the others, as I watched them come through the portal; I noticed that something was missing.

"What the hell???"

"I've no idea," answered Kana shaking his head.

"There should be monsters here by now, even with Andariel dead," Morone said.

"Well its empty now." Kyana walked over to a barrel and kicked it open. A skeleton emerged and she knocked it dead with one jab of her javelin.

"This is odd," Meghan articulated.

"Let's go to the next room," said a very confused Kana.

The next chamber within the catacombs level four was just as the same as the one that we had been: deserted. There were absolutely no signs of life in the whole chamber.

"Look around you guys, it could be a trap," I commanded.

I looked around, kicking all the barrels; nothing was here besides a skeleton here and there in a barrel. Suddenly I heard noises from behind the door to the third room.

"Shut up you guys, I think I hear something."

They looked at me like I was crazy. I took a few steps towards the door; I pressed my ear on the freezing wooden door. Indeed, there were voices behind the doors.

"There's someone behind these doors."

"Are you sure?"

"Damn straight," I replied to Meghan.

"Well let's look inside," Kyana said.

"On three okay?" Morone pressed himself onto the door.

"1."

"2."

"3."

We bashed down the door and I nearly fainted, my wildest dream had just become true.......


End file.
